OUTDOORS: Take precautions against dangerous ticks

Saturday

Nov 4, 2017 at 4:39 PMNov 4, 2017 at 4:41 PM

Unfortunately, with so much misinformation about ticks and the diseases they carry, no one seems to have a clear-cut answer to the problem, including the government, the medical industry and insurance companies.

By Randy Julius, Enterprise Correspondent

Last Thursday my brother Dale and I went to the Irwin Wilder pheasant hunting area off Toad Island Road in Norton for a midday bird hunt with my English setter Cooper. The woods and fields were bright with fall colors and it was nice to watch the dog working through the varied covers.

We only found one pheasant, which flushed out of range and flew into a thick swamp. We worked in the direction the bird went and when Cooper flushed it again, Dale was able to make the shot. It was his first pheasant of the year and his success added some adventure to our three-hour walk.

The only drawback to venturing outdoors right now is the number of ticks that have come out in the past few weeks. Ticks don’t like hot, dry weather and spend most of the summer under the leaf litter on the ground where it’s damp and cool, which is why spring and fall are the worst times of the year for the nasty little buggers.

For protection while hunting Dale and I were both wearing permethrin-treated clothing. I only found two ticks crawling on my pant legs and Dale didn’t have any on him. Cooper was another story. He was covered with them and in the course of our three-hour hunt I removed 64 ticks and about a dozen more when I combed him back at the truck.

We use Seresto collars on our dogs, which for the most part keep them from getting bitten. The ticks still get on the dogs, but drop off or come to the surface of their coats after encountering the repellant. The collars are expensive, but offer eight months of protection against ticks, fleas and lice. The permethrin we use on our clothing is also expensive, but it works.

Some may think the chemicals we’re using are overkill, but this year we’re being much more cautious than normal after some recent bad luck with tick diseases. It wasn’t too long ago when black-legged ticks, better known as deer ticks, were unheard of in this area, but now they are spreading at an alarming rate across New England and so are the many diseases they carry.

After a couple of rainy days in July, Mary found a tiny tick in between the sandal straps on the top of her foot after a short trip to the garden to pick salad greens. The tick didn’t appear to be attached when she removed it, but the next day she noticed a red rash that quickly expanded. A day later her foot was swollen badly, her leg was numb and she had severe nerve pain, disorientation and general flu-like symptoms.

The doctor said it looked more like a spider bite and prescribed an antibiotic. A week later her blood test came back positive for the tick disease anaplasmosis. The doctor started her on a new prescription, which she took for three weeks. She is now better than she was, but is still experiencing numbness in her foot and some nerve pain in her leg.

Two weeks after Mary was bitten, my 91-year-old father went camping for three days in Myles Standish State Forest. After returning home he came down with another tick borne disease called babesiosis, which is a malaria-like infection that attacks the red blood cells. He was seriously sick and it just about did him in. His temperature was up to 104 and his blood pressure dropped off the map before we got him admitted to the hospital. (He didn’t want to go.)

He was bleeding internally, went into cardiac arrest three days after being admitted, and had more tubes, needles and machines hooked to him than I’ve ever seen. He was also diagnosed with a co-infection of Lyme disease, which is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. Amazingly, after a cocktail of intravenous antibiotics, he’s on the mend and is currently undergoing rehab.

Since my dad’s diagnosis we’ve heard from 10 people who either had babesiosis this summer or knew someone who had it. Lyme disease is becoming a common occurrence, but before this summer I didn’t know anyone who had been diagnosed with babesiosis or anaplasmosis.

Unfortunately, with so much misinformation about ticks and the diseases they carry, no one seems to have a clear-cut answer to the problem, including the government, the medical industry and insurance companies. Those of us who spend a lot of time outdoors can help. Most of us have been bitten, many have been sick, and many have tested negative repeatedly or have been misdiagnosed. Do the research. Share your knowledge and personal experiences, and remember, one bite from the wrong tick can change a life forever.

Randy Julius’ “Outdoors’’ column appears on Sunday in The Enterprise.

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